In Toulouse, the bleeding of employees continues at Jean-Luc Moudenc’s office
Added to the seven departures recorded since the re-election of Jean-Luc Moudenc in June 2020, this would therefore bring to ten the number of cabinet staff who had others prematurely terminated their contract in less than a year and a half. A record! As a reminder, at least 17 people had already left the cabinet of Jean-Luc Moudenc between 2015 (year of the appointment of Arnaud Mounier as its head) and June 2020.
A firm more unstable in Toulouse than elsewhere
Asked about this important renewal ahead of our previous investigation into the tensions in his cabinet, Jean-Luc Moudenc assured us that this turnover was “similar to that of other firms in very large cities.” A false statement in view of the situation in the large French metropolises. At the other end of the Garonne, for example, the offices of Pierre Hurmic, EELV de Bordeaux, and Alain Anziani, PS president of Bordeaux Métropole, have only registered three departures since their elections in 2020.
In Montpellier, the mayor-president PS Michaël Delafosse has eight employees for the city and 11 for Montpellier Méditerranée. “No departure has been recorded since June 2020”, indicates the press service of the elected Socialist. In Loire-Atlantique, the socialist Johanna Rolland can also count on a team of 19 employees since her re-election at the head of Nantes and Nantes Métropole. His cabinet has registered six departures since the start of the mandate. Finally in Lyon, the ecological mayor Grégory Doucet has been assisted by a team of twelve people since his election in June. Only one has left office since then. The comparison is final. The current cabinet of the mayor of Toulouse is much less stable than that of other large cities.
On the previous term, the difference is less marked. In Bordeaux, Alain Juppé’s office has more employees than in Toulouse (seven at the town hall and 16 at the metropolis). Between 2014 and 2020, 15 premature departures were counted there (five at the town hall and ten at the metropolis). In Loire-Atlantique, 13 people – out of a workforce of 18 – ended their assignment in Johanna Rolland’s cabinet (five in the months following her election in 2014 and eight during the remainder of the term).
It is unfortunately impossible for us to know the precise situation concerning the mandate of the former mayor of Montpellier because Philippe Saurel did not respond to our requests. We just know that three directors of cabinet follow one another in his service, which may have had an impact on the renewal of his team of collaborators. Same mystery for Lyon. The count of the collaborators of the former mayor Gérard Collomb was too considered “time consuming” by the services of the town hall who specify that the latter “having been minister in the meantime, then again mayor, there have been many changes”.
Difficult relations with certain elected members of the majority
If the office of the mayor of Toulouse remains at the top of this list, the very directive attitude of its director, Arnaud Mounier, undoubtedly explains it in large part. Cabinet associates – who are private law contractors – should not be the only ones to suffer this behavior. It would affect members of the administration but also elected members of the majority. We contacted five of them to verify the details. Brigitte Micouleau, to whom several of our sources attribute conflicting relations with Jean-Luc Moudenc’s chief of staff, denies everything. “These are deliberate lies and gossip if, I hope, you will not pay attention,” we said Senator LR and city councilor of Toulouse.
The municipal majority buzzes with the most diverse rumors. Thus, Jean-Jacques Bolzan would have recently had a “muscular explanation” with Arnaud Mounier. The anecdote, reported by several sources, is refuted by the person concerned. “I lead my delegation according to our commitments and my passion without any intervention from the cabinet,” he told us. “Arnaud Mounier is Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” sighs a municipal councilor, on condition of anonymity. From the front, he is placid and smiling, but from behind, he spies on collaborators, agents and elected officials. It’s Stalinist! As a result, no one said anything out of fear. Everyone is doing the minimum. There is no group dynamic. “
Another elected official reports this organized surveillance: “He calls the secretaries of elected officials to find out where we are. It counts the absences, the arrival times. He asks us to go to such and such a meeting to make the vases. He makes files on everyone to bring them out at the right time. Perrin was entitled to his at the start of the school year ”.
For this city councilor, the chief of staff would have no equal in “having competent people do what he cannot do himself”, before “taking the credit”. “At the beginning, he met with confidence,” continues the latter. We give our all but he asks too much. It pumps energy and everything changes when you start to resist. He reveals his true personality, calls anytime, asking to redo everything over and over again. He screams at people and wears them out to the core. “
Mounier, the monk-soldier
Asked about the chief of staff, another pillar of the majority confirms his propensity to generate conflicts, while procrastinating: “I have often been told that it was confrontational and that there were tensions, even if I didn’t. haven’t seen him personally. Arnaud Mounier has an authoritarian, hard, strong character. It can be mistaken for authoritarianism. He has a rigorous obsessive working method. But it is otherwise effective. We can’t take it away from him. If the mayor keeps it, the results are satisfactory. “” Why is Moudenc keeping Mounier? This question came up repeatedly during our numerous interviews. For some, the mayor would be “under the influence” of his right arm; others explain the maintenance of this man of confidence by “his significant capacity for work”, his absence of “personal political weight” and his effectiveness during electoral period.
“The campaign for the second round of municipal elections was very hard,” observes a former member of the cabinet. It is the brand of Arnaud Mounier that brought Moudenc out of its historic moderation. No one else could have transformed him like that. The same observer also recalls the “unfailing loyalty” of Arnaud Mounier to Jean-Luc Moudenc, while the latter “has experienced many betrayals and setbacks in his political life”. “Arnaud is the monk-soldier who could sacrifice himself for Jean-Luc. He is in pain to relieve him. This is why the firm has become a structure at its service, ”he explains.
A monk-soldier who would not hesitate to “do the job for Moudenc”, according to a former administrative officer. A historical activist of the Toulouse right is disconcerted: “Today, elected officials are subject to members of the cabinet who have no legitimacy. It is the only city in France where elected officials are scared of their referents in the cabinet. Mounier is not at fault. He only does what Moudenc allows him to do. It is a useful tool for the mayor because it allows the latter to manage elected officials and dispense with their advice. “
According to our witness, the chief of staff would have “emerged grown up” since our investigation into the “Mounier system”. “He feared your article and that it would be worse for him. He was surprised by the quality of Jean-Luc Moudenc’s support for him. To people who rubbed their hands in advance, he was able to say: 1) The opposition has not taken up the subject; 2) There was nothing in La Dépêche du Midi ; 3) The mayor comforts me; 4). Fuck you! “If our interlocutor is true, we must therefore expect other departures from the Capitol in the coming months.